I wanted to make a spin-off short-story from the Alien sci-fi horror film franchise to posit a new 'angle' on tackling the insectisoid-dragon creature (known as the Xenomorph) presented in the films.

I wonder if film-makers would use such an angle.

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Ripley was finished jotting her notes about the Xenomorph colony found on Mars and was pantomiming how she would present her conclusions at the Space Explorer Company Conference the next morning. She looked at her handful of Company medals which included honors for space exploration and creature hunting. Something about the Xenomorphs did not sit well with Ripley, and she knew her conclusion that an 'alternative method' of hunting would be mandatory was correct.

The Company conference, Ripley stood in front of the critical board members and presented her conclusion. According to Ripley, the Xenomorph was not only a hunting predator which spewed a corrosive juice from its mouth and tore humans apart with its dragon-like giant claws and stalked around with its insect-like creeping and contortion skills, but it was also a very intelligent and shrewd creature which needed to be confused to be defeated.

Ripley was polishing her laser-gun on the Company ship headed towards the Xenomorph colony on Mars when one of her military guardians requested she give a formal explanation of her plan to 'confuse' these Xenomorphs. Ripley told her men that they would use water-mist guns and glass prisms to create miniature-rainbows in front of the Xenomorph while other guardsmen were keeping it at a safe distance with flame-throwers; and while the Xenomorph was distracted (and hopefully hypnotized) by the rainbows, Ripley would use her special torch-light equipped laser-gun to shine light into the Xenomorph's eyes and play with its mind by making shadow-puppets with her hand.

Ripley's men understood the plan was to literally perplex the Xenomorph into focusing on two different sets of strange visual stimuli simultaneously long enough for them to trap it, strike it, or burn it (with their flame-throwers). As they made their way through the underground caves on the area of Mars where the Xenomorph colony was first detected by Ripley and her Company men, they stumbled upon the egg-laying layer where the giant Queen Xenomorph was sitting.

Ripley pulled out her water-mist gun and glass prisms and two other Company men assisted her in making the rainbows in front of the Queen Xenomorph's eyes; the creature sneered but stared at the mini-rainbows. Ripley then used the torch-light on her gun to shine a ray into the creature's eyes and then started making shadow-puppets. The Xenomorph became visibly confused and then frustrated, but its moment of indecision was all the Company men needed to spray a reliable line of lasers and flames and killed the Queen and all her eggs.

Ripley and the Company men flew away on their spacecraft after burning whatever else they could find in that cave labyrinth on their way out. Ripley knew that since the Queen was dead, the Xenomorph colony would not survive, and the Company wisely quarantined the area and prohibited any future exploration. As Ripley lay in her bed, playing with shadow-puppets on the ceiling with her flashlight, she wondered how such as ghastly creature could be 'duped' by something as lovely as rainbows and shadow-puppets.

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Daniels studied the lines of the desk in her room on the space-shuttle Prometheus. She was mourning the loss of her husband, Captain Branson, who died in a freakish accident in one of the hypersleep pods during the Prometheus's special flight to the planet Xanadu (a remote planet where water was detected), which was located somewhere outside Earth's solar-system. According to NASA reports, there was an intelligent signal emanating from Xanadu.

When the Prometheus landed on Xanadu, Captain Oram (the new leader) ordered a special surveying-team to scour the terrain on the planet. Daniels was among this team. As the group roamed around a field surrounded by mountains and hills with fjords and containing a nice lake, Oram suggested that the crew of the Prometheus begin generating reports on the colonization-potential on Xanadu. However, Daniels protested, insisting the crew first investigate the nature/origin of the intelligent signal emanating from Xanadu.

Oram conceded, so the surveying-team decided to prowl around inside the mountainside's caves and caverns, looking for signs of organic life. One member, Stephenson (the zoologist), found what seemed to be a patch of large eggs (of what creature he couldn't identify). As Stephenson started probing the eggs, a strange black mist rose from the eggs, and some of it entered Stephenson's nostrils and the pores on his face. Within 10 minutes, Stephenson went into an epileptic seizure and had to be carried back to the Prometheus.

Doctor Tennessee looked at Stephenson and alarmingly reported to Captain Oram that Stephenson was somehow infected by an 'alien organism' which was not gestating and growing inside Stephenson's chest! Oram panicked and wondered if they should execute Stephenson and extract the alien, but Tennessee insisted they try to keep him alive. As the two argued, a bizarre-looking and rather large insectisoid-looking creature with an oval head and long tail lunged out of Stephenson's broken chest and scurried away at incredible speed and disappeared.

Daniels requested Oram give an address to the crew regarding the importance of the alien intelligence signal which NASA detected. Oram confessed to the crew that the intelligence signal was the reason the Prometheus was sent to Xanadu. Daniels felt betrayed and wondered if her husband's death on the Prometheus would ever be honoured. Tennessee suggested that all members of the surveying-team be inspected for possible signs of alien-contagion. All team members were cleared, but Tennessee himself started noticing strange spores developing on his forearm (but he kept this secret).

Two months later, as the crew of the Prometheus continued developing a 'base-station' on Xanadu and began cultivating the land for farming purposes, Oram continued to report to NASA about the nature of the intelligence signal. Oram did not disclose yet to NASA the potential link between the mysterious intelligence signal and the strange eerie creature which burst out of Stephenson's chest and disappeared. However, Oram would soon discover that this creature was indeed a 'major player.' As Oram and Daniels went on a mission to explore on the caverns, they discovered more eggs (the kind Stephenson discovered).

ORAM: This must be more of that creature...
DANIELS: Let's exterminate these eggs!
ORAM: Daniels, I'm surprised by your 'bravado.'
DANIELS: Hey, even women take action, sir.

As Daniels was about to exterminate the eggs, a human-like voice cried out, "No!" Daniels and Oram turned around and saw a cyborg standing before them. The cyborg introduced himself as Walter One, a 'being' created secretly by NASA and then kidnapped by the 'alien-creatures' called 'Xenomorphs' (which Stephenson fatefully 'discovered') and brought to Xanadu. Daniels and Oram wondered if this was all some giant conspiracy!

ORAM: What do you do on Xanadu?
DANIELS: Do you serve these 'Xenomorph' creatures?
WALTER: Yes; it was the Xenomorphs (aka, 'Xenos') who sent the signal!

ORAM: That 'creature' (its 'relatives') sent that intelligence signal?
DANIELS: What do they want?
WALTER: They want to dominate human beings...

Daniels and Oram quickly concluded that Walter One was a slave of the Xenomorphs, and Daniels worried that Walter One was setting some kind of 'fertility-trap' so the Xenos would proliferate and maybe even use the Prometheus to travel back to Earth for a terrifying invasion. Walter One explained to Oram that the Xenos grew very large in size and possessed corrosive acid for blood, making it incredibly dangerous to get close to them or try to puncture them in anyway. Oram hypothesized that these Xenos were messengers of doom whose blood was literally poison.

The Prometheus took off and headed back to Earth. Daniels was quietly relieved she'd never have to deal with those Xenos ever again, swearing to retire as soon as she got home and properly mourn the accidental death of her husband (Captain Branson). What no one on the Prometheus (crew size: 15) knew was that Doctor Tennessee was infected by Xeno-spores which started mutating the good doctor into a Xenomorph! Captain Oram was having dinner one night with Tennessee when they had a very eerie conversation. Earth's fate hung in the balance.

ORAM: Looks like we'll be back on Earth on schedule...
TENNESSEE: That's good news indeed, captain!
ORAM: What's wrong with your arm; are those sores?
TENNESSEE: There's something growing inside me, sir.
ORAM: Excuse me?
TENNESSEE: Are you a fan of rainbows on Earth, sir?
ORAM: Yes, why?
TENNESSEE: Did you notice the double-rainbow on Xanadu?
ORAM: Um, yes I did, Tennessee; what's this about?
TENNESSEE: This is about changing ecology and nature!
ORAM: What the hell are you talking about, doctor?
TENNESSEE: You see, sir, I'm becoming something else.
ORAM: Doctor, you should stay in private quarters for mental rehab.
TENNESSEE: I'm merely a 'rainbow-messenger.'
ORAM: Rainbow-messenger? I'm not following, Tennessee.
TENNESSEE: The Xenos are messengers of poison and pollution.
ORAM: Really? How'd you know that? I think you're ill...
TENNESSEE: Earth will become a haven for dinosaurs again, captain.
ORAM: Just get rest; we'll be home soon.